Means of forming electrically-bonded rail-joints.



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PQTENTED MA MEANS 6P FORMING ELEOTRIUALLY BONDED RAIL JOZNTS,

APPLICATION FILED 351111.27. N06.

unrrnn STATES PATENT onn on,

- To all whom it may concern:

HORATIOG. GILLMOR, or BATH, MAINE.

- MEANS or FORMING 'ELEoTnIcALLY-BoivnEn RAIL-JOINTS.

Be it known that I, HORATIO G. GILLMOR,

a citizen of the United States,'residi ng at Bath, county of Sagadahoc, State of Maine,- haveinvented an Improvement in the Means of Forming Electrica ly-Bonded Rail-Joints, of which the following is a specification, accompanied by drawings.

This invention relates to electrically bonded rail joints, and one of its objects is to provide electrical contact between the parts of the joint employed to give the necessary mechanical strength to the joint, so that their electrical conductivity may be made to contribute to whole.

bination of elements and arrangement of Another object of my invention is toprovide a bond, which may be cheaply manu' factured from a rolled sheet or plate, in which the area of the surfaces of contact of the bonds with the rails shall be great as comvention consists of an electrically bonded rail joint for carrying out the above objects embody ing the features of construction, comparts' having the general mode of operation, substantially ashereinafter fully described in this'specification and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section,

. of a form of the electrically bonded joint.

Fig. 2 is a section of the. arts of this form at the plane indicated by); X. in Fig. 3. Figs.

. 3 and 4 are sections illustrating modified material of relatively high electrical conducforms of the electrically bonded joint.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views. Referring to the drawings, Arepresents the meeting ends'of the rails; B the bond of .tivity, such for example as copper, zinc or aluminium C fish bars, and-'D a clamp chair 1 of the ty e described in my'applications Nos.

290161, .ledDeoember 4,1905, and 300667,

filed February 12, 1906, in which pressure upon the parts of the joint necessary to'se cure them in position is secured by wedges,

- Speeificationof Letters latent. Application filed March 27. 19cm Serial No. 308.289.

the conductivity of the joint as a Patented March 3, 1908.

W and driven between the arms E of the clamp chair and other arts of the joint,

reach the proper position. Y The rail 'ends rest u on a base plate N'interlocking with the 0 amp chair so .as to prevent longitudinal movement of the base plate with respect to the chair. The ins G traverse holes in the bond plate, fish bars and rails arranged to register with one another so that the bond and fish bars 'areprevented from mo longitudinally with respect to each other one of the rail ends.- 4

A feature of this invention is the roviding of large areas of contact of the bond rail ends and with the several'parts of the rail joint employed, primarily, togive the joint the necessary strength; the object be- .ing to make the electrical conductivity of these strength members ofthe joint contribute to the conductivity of the electrical circuit at the joint. To this end, the bond B, formed preferably from a rolled sheet or plate, is bent to fit the under surfaces of the heads of the'rails as at I, and around the tops of the base flanges, as at K in Figs. 1 'and'2. When the fish bars 0 are placed and forced these wedges being rovi ed with suitable" -means to automatical y lock them when they no With the into positionthe bondis forced into intimate.

contact on the one hand with the under surfaces of the heads and the tops of the base flanges of the rails and. on-the other hand, with the fish bars.

The wedges are constructed to exert Wedging forces both transversely and vertically; so that, when they are driven into position,-

not only are the fish bars and bond forced intoposition against the rail ends, but the parts of the joint are made to exert'pressure upwardly under the bases of the rails and downwardly, upon the upper surfaces of the bases; and the bond is thus made to E'ohtact more intimately and over a larger area with the bases of the rails-than would otherwise be the case. Furthermore, as the materials,

wvhich would ordinarily be employed for the bond, are, as compared with the materials of the rails'and other parts of the joint, rela-' tively soft, projections from the surfaces of.

these latter would be forced into the softer material of the bond; so that the bond, under the pressure'exerted upon it, will conform closely to the surfaces of the rail and other parts, even though these be somewhat irreguar; and the contact surfaces of the bond and the continui pressure upon thesesurfaces will notbe .a ected by'the contraction and expansion of the rails. The areas of contact of the bond with the rails are as compared 5 with the sectional area of the bond relatively great, and thecontact of the bond with the strength members of the joint make these latter a art' of the electrical circuit at the "oint. here copper is employed for these onds, it will generally be desirable to coat its surfaces with a metal or metals less subject to corrosiye action of the elements; and, for this urpose a coating of tin, zinc or lead or com inations of-these' metals or other metals mi ht be employed. Where it is desirable'to refuce the areas of contact between the bond and the rails, fish bars and other parts to a minimum, a plastic amalgam of mercury and other metals may be employed between the rail. and the parts ofthe oints, with which it comes in contact, with a view to insuring better electrical contact.

In the form of the j oint-illus'trated in Fig. 3

contact is provided for between the bond, the

' top' arid bottom surfaces of the baseflanges of sar pressure upon the parts.

the rails and the fish bars and clamps; and the whole held in position by an automatically locking wed ed clamcp chair D with wedges W and for pro ucing the necesn the form of the bond illustrated in Fig. 4, contact between the bondand the base of the rail and the clamp chair only are provided for, there being employed at the joint a fish bar-of special form a wedged fishbar 56, chair C21, and a wedge W driven between the v clamp chair D at one side of the joint ahd the other parts to clamp the whole in position.

3 Obviously, some features of this invention 40 may be used without others and the invention may be embodied in widely varying forms of which those shown in the drawing are but a few of the types; therefore, without limiting the invention to the construc- 'ti0I1 shown and described, nor enumerating the equivalents, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent the following:

' 1. An electrically bonded rail joint, includin -,.in combination with the rails, a

aving upwardly extending arms, a

bonding late over-la ping the ends of the" rails, an a wedge w ereby pressureis exerted upon parts of the joint, substantially as described. 4

2. The dombination of rails and an electrically bonded joint for the adjacent ends thereof, including a chair havinglinwardly extendingIarms, a sheetof conducting Inaterial over-lapping the ends of saidfrails, and

tially as described.

wedges whereby pressure is exerted uponthe parts 'of the joint, substantially as described.

3. The combination of rails and an electrically bonded joint for the adjacent ends thereof, including a chair having upwardly w extending arms, a conducting. plate overlapping the ends of said rails, and wedges constructed with double wedging surfaces whereby an inward and. upper pressure is exerted upon parts.'of the joint, substan- 04. A combination of rails and an electrically bonded joint for the adjacent ends .thereof, including a sheet of conducting ma terial over-lapping the ends of said rails, a

chair having upwardly extending'arms; fish bars adapted to engage under surfaces of the heads of therails and upper surfaces of the bases of the rails, and wedges driven in between the arms of said chair and said fish bars, substantially as described.

5. Acombination of rails and an electrically. bonded joint for the adjacent, ends thereof, including a plate of bonding material over lapping the ends of said rails, a chair having upwardly extending arms; fish bars-adapted to engage under surfaces of the"? heads of the rails and upper surfaces of the ""basesof the rails; wedges between said arms and bars, and fastening means-for holding the joints in place, substantially as -'described.

6. A combination of rails and an electrically bonded joint for the adjacent ends extending arms, bonding plates and bars be-' tween sald chair and said rails, and wedges driven in between the arms of sa1d chair and as described.

onded rail joint, in-

tionsapproximately at right angles, where- 1 by an upward pressure is exerted upon portions of said sheet of ,b onding material and a an inward pressure upon the said bars at opposite sides of said rails, substantially as described. v

testimony whereof I- have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. I a

I H. G. GILLMOR. Witnesses:

H. H. 'BoNNEMoRT, H. E. WILLIAMS. 

